Reading this thread had me listen to Lana Del Rey for first time in years. Tried listening to Mariners Apartment Complex and Doin Time and both surpress the Video Games song from years back I must say.

Yeah been able to go through it a few times and yeah I really like a lot of the songs and yet as lovely as the whole album sounds it still feels just slightly less than the sum of its parts. Maybe by assuredly getting better and better it's occasional lulls feel more pronounced, and the ending while perfectly, thematically appropriate feels a bit anti-climactic and dissapointing. Still very good and I can see why a lot are digging this album even if the praise feels a bit hyperbolic at this point._________________Skinny for Prime Minister

On a semi-related note I happened to listen to Red for the first time recently (although it was because of my friend’s rec, not Pitchfork’s), and it was significantly better than expected. Really enjoyed it, although 9 seems extreme.

P.S. My great grandpa was a model for Rockwell and the museum is close to where I grew up. I wonder how his family feels about the title.

I've been to that museum. Beautiful. I happened to be there when there was also an exhibit on Edward Hopper (another favorite American artist of mine). I even got a nice print from there of "The Dugout".

Just listened to a few Lana Del Ray songs cause of this thread. Suprised i actually enjoyed a few of them but yeah, there doesn't seem to be much variation there. Summertime Sadness is dope tho._________________"Drink beer, smoke pot, and create something that will storm heaven. That's all I ever really cared about." - Ron House

Not to go on about Pitchfork, but a 9.4 ties Lana with Joanna Newsom for the highest score for a record by a solo female artist on initial release in 20 years (followed by Loretta Lynn and Joanna Newsom again).

If that's wrong, let me know, I did my own research

After a few spins, I've definitely been able to pick out some iffy lyrics, but it's still launched itself as my AOTY. The title track and The Greatest are pretty easy song of the year contenders for me too...

I think people (me included, as a people) are going to have a slightly hard time really believing Lana Del Rey dropped an album like this. I'm not entirely sure anyone expected her to ever top Video Games/Summertime Sadness as a niche sad-flower-girl singles artist with records stuffed on shelves at Urban Outfitters. This is a really mature work.

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and the ending while perfectly, thematically appropriate feels a bit anti-climactic and dissapointing.

I'm actually pretty fond of the closing two tracks. Happiness Is A Butterfly might be an overlooked darkhorse, and Hope Is A Dangerous Thing is a brilliant closer. I think The Greatest could've closed the record too, but either works. Being said, opening track aside, I wouldn't be surprised to hear she had an awkward time deciding what order to put the tracks in. I'm finding it difficult to rearrange into a better order, but I feel like something's there. Which is possibly why you feel:

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like a lot of the songs and yet as lovely as the whole album sounds it still feels just slightly less than the sum of its parts.

And I maaaaaybe would've cut Bartender which sounds like a song she wrote five years ago and kept up her sleeve for the right moment to put it on an album. It's not a terrible track, but the biggest complaint I'm seeing from people who enjoy the record is that it's 'too long', so yeah._________________Laksa & Phanaeng

Yeah I mean it may look like I'm bagging on the album a bit too much as I did love a lot of it, perhaps it's a bit of a Melodrama/Be the Cowboy situation as perhaps the praise feels just a bit too hyperbolic (even if I think this is a bit better than both of those still pretty strong releases in the end). I guess if I had to pinpoint the few problems that kind of disrupt the atmosphere Lana's going for is Doin' Time, which had it been closer to the beginning or the end of the album it would've felt more acceptable but smack dab in the heart of it all something was just a bit off-putting about it, I think since the first four songs create this really strong mood of a more confrontational, emotional directness that this just sort of feels incongruent with the album taht surrounds it, maybe one that fits with Lana's general style but not really with NFR. In some ways had she covered Santeria it would've pulled off the general trick she was kind of, ultimately unsuccessfully, going for (switching sides to take the point of view of her secretly-vulnerable n'er do well lover) and would've felt more musically consistient with the album as a whole. I mean it's fine as it's own stand-alone thing but throws the mood of the album off for a bit, which she doesn't really re-rail until the excellent Cinammon Girl. And yeah California feels like it wants to be this big, epic song about desperation towards a doomed love affair but it feels strangely apathetic from the start and kind of just fizzles out about halfway through, and yeah Bartender just feels kind of one-note and a b-side castoff that could've been trimmed from an already slightly bloated album.

But yes it's strengths definitely out-number it's weakness, I mean Venice Bitch is a miracle it works so well as it should've felt pretty trite since it's pretty much one hazy 10 minute guitar solo but it's a stunner, and the three songs around it despite a good number of usual Lana Del Rey-isms are her at her lyrically strongest (even Fuck It I Love You, which I was initally a bit hesitant at perhaps because of it's somewhat trapp-y feel) and, despite the generous turn-of-phrase deliveries, her most direct and confrontational. I love the cinematic vibe of Cinammon Girl and the hopefullness of the soda shop throwback How to Dissapear, probably her sweetest and most optimistic track to date, and despite that the glaring hubris of The Greatest that almost begs you to hate it (did she really need to name-check Brian Wilson) it comes as close as possible to delivering on the title's promise. And I think some people have a problem with the Next Great American Record, but I do really love it's late 90s electro-alternative vibe, in many ways fitting with an album that does so effectively conjure a 90s set of mind (with it's slightly ironic reverance and inward-outward re-working of the pearls of the past with an anxious, intrepid look towards the future). And yeah the finale does make perfect artistic sense, but I don't know if I can quite put my finger on it why I think it's a bit of a missed oppurtunity. Perhaps just wanting a grander, shattering statement of purpose that would've made me forgive the occassional mis-step and think this release was completely singular and vital, but it just feels... consistient.

So yeah what can I really say, there's a lot to love here and the album as a whole is very, very, very strong. And yes maybe it's just a slight gap towards this GOAT hype and my own very high but not to-the-heavens admiration that can kind of slightly magnify the few things that don't work about it. Again a lot of people really love it and I can definitely see why. Perhaps my feeling towards it is more "I really really really like you" than "Run away with me", but all in all yes still one of the year's best so far and I think the time Lana's distinct but hitherto slightly un-refined vision has finally all come together. Given I don't know where she can really go from here without changing up her style completely, but if this is a swan song to the Lana at least as we've known her so far it's a more than fitting send-off._________________Skinny for Prime Minister